Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to reflective focusing and transmissive projection devices. More specifically, certain embodiments relate to reflective focusing and transmissive projection devices used in imaging and sensing applications such as microscopy or photography.
Microscopes and other optical microscopy devices are used extensively in modern biomedicine and bioscience. Typically, conventional microscopes include an objective lens, a platform for supporting a specimen, and an eyepiece containing lenses for focusing images. These conventional microscope designs have bulky optics, and have proven to be expensive and difficult to miniaturize. Further, since high resolution objective lenses have a limited field of view, the specimen stage must be moved to increase the scope of the view, which can be time-consuming.
A conventional confocal laser scanning microscope uses a laser beam to provide light which is focused by an objective lens into a small focal volume at the specimen. Scattered and reflected laser light as well as any fluorescence light from the illuminated spot on the specimen is collected by the objective lens. The collected light is transmitted to a beam splitter which separates out the light of interest and passes it to a detection apparatus. As the laser scans over a plane of interest, an image can be obtained of the specimen. This technique can be time-consuming since the laser must scan over the specimen to collect sufficient light data for an image. In addition, the separate component of the beam splitter can make the device bulky.